Getting lost in the noise…
Have you gone onto Instagram to see what your engagement is like, only to find you lose an hour on the app? You are definitely not alone.
This isn’t specific to artists even. By looking at statistics, we see that amount of time we spend on social networks has increased without fail since 2012, with the average daily social media usage amounting to 2 hours and 25 minutes in 2020 according to Statistica.
Just so you know, I come from the technologist perspective. From 2012 until 2017, I studied business and information systems. Back then, social media held so much promise as a tool to connect us online, to be part of an online community that could benefit and enrich our lives. While it’s not all bad, we now see that a big component of social media is detrimental to our lives.
If you haven’t watched the Social Dilemma on Netflix yet, I would highly recommend it! In it we see how current day social media apps are created to keep us engaging with their platform, as this provides more opportunity to monetize peoples usage through the use of data and ads targeting us. This effect often pulls us out of the present moment, and pulling us away from what we actually love to do.
BUT, as the founder of the social dilemma said, there is hope. There are organisations out there who are fighting to fix the issue, and we ourselves can make decisions in order to take control of our time on social media and make it work for us.
Here are some ways as a creative where you can improve your social media usage:
Ask “What is my purpose?”
Every action has a purpose, so ask yourself “What is my purpose for being on social media?”. We will all have different answers, but it all comes back to connection. Whether it be connecting with emotions by watching videos, connecting with friends, or as a creative way to connect with an audience who are invested in your work. If you are aware of this reason while being on social media, you will more likely have the ability to do what serves you best on social media without indulging in the infinite scrolling that we all have become accustomed to.
Track your usage
If you’re like me, this can scare you into being more conscious of your screen time! I always knew that the usage stats were available on my iPhone, but I never think of going into Settings to see it. Then I learnt I could have a widget that would appear on my home screen! This has been a game changer as I see how much time I have spent on my phone that day whenever I pick up my phone. If I see the minutes and hours going up, I realise I need to be more intentional when I pick up my phone.
Move usage to desktop
There is no shame if you need to delete social media apps on your phone to combat excessive usage. Because we often form a habit of picking up our phones, we end up using apps more often. Therefore, by limiting our social media usage to our laptops and computers, we can take back control of our time. Sitting at a laptop for example is more intentional than a mobile device, but beware you can get stuck there also! Most social media apps have desktop use. For Instagram, you can now do almost everything through the desktop as well.
Use a social media planner
Saying to use a social media planner seems like an oxymoron when we’re trying to reduce our time on social media, but there is a reason! As the saying goes “if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”
So by using a social media planner, such as Later or Hootsuite, we can bypass the social media apps in question, but create content on a planner that will push it to your social media platform. This is great as you are aligning with what you want to do, which is to share your work with the world and allow followers to invest in you.
